FAUNA OF ORTHAULAX PUGNAX ZONE, 3 



Somewhat later Ballast Point was visited by Prof. J. W. Bailey, 

 United States Army, who was interested in Foraminifera and 

 published ^ an account in 1850 of material which he supposed to be an 

 infusorial earth from this locality. This has since been determined 

 to be merely a part of the marl, which contains a certain number of 

 diatoms and Foraminifera and not a separate deposit. Thirty-six 

 years later an exploration of southern Florida was suggested by 

 Mr. Joseph Willcox, of Philadelphia, and financed by the Wagner 

 Free Institute of Science and the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 that city. The party was led by Mr. Willcox and included Prof. 

 Angelo Heilprin and Mr. Charles H. Brock, besides the master and 

 crew of a small sailing vessel on which the trip was made. A hasty 

 visit to Ballast Point enabled Professor Heilprin to make a collection 

 of the silicified fossils and some notes on the geology, which were 

 afterward published in the Transactions of the Wagner Institute ^ as 

 part of an interesting report on the expedition. 



The silex bed was referred by Professor Heilprin to the " Middle 

 Atlantic Miocene " and correlated with part of his " Virginian series," 

 in part the "Yorktown epoch" of Dana (pp. 121, 127). He de- 

 scribed and figured the new forms and enumerated 47 species from 

 that horizon and pointed out the identity of 6 of them with species 

 collected from the Santo Domingo Tertiary by W. M. Gabb. He 

 pointed out the probable identity of Conrad's Nummulites floridana 

 with the European OrhltolUes complanata of Lam.arck, a surmise 

 which has since been agreed to by Doctor Bagg. Curiously enough 

 the laj^er called the Cerithhim Rock, by Heilprin, which he thought 

 to be below the horizon of the silex beds, but which has since proved 

 to be part of the "Tampa limestone" overlying the silex beds,^ he 

 placed as forming the " transition ground " between the Miocene and 

 Oligocene. 



The researches of the Wagner expedition having aroused interest, 

 the present writer was directed by the authorities of the United 

 States Geological Survey to proceed to Florida in the winter of 

 1886-87 to obtain further information. 



At the invitation of Mr. Willcox who intended to go over the same 

 ground again we joined forces, and to his familiarity with the region 

 much of the resulting success was due. 



The conclusions drawn from the observations made on this trip 

 were published by the writer in the Neocene Correlation Paper* of 

 the surve}^, together with much collateral information derived from 

 investigations in other parts of Florida. Collections at Ballast Point 



1 Smiths. Contr. Knowl., vol. 2, No. 8, p. 19, 1850. 



2 Trans. Wagner Inst., vol. 1, pp. 10-11, 105-127, June, 18S9. 



' A limestone underlying the silicious zone is reached by artesian wells, but this was 

 inaccessible to Heilprin and seems by its fauna Identical with the silex beds. 

 * U. S. Geol. Survey, Bull. No. 84, 1892, pp. 111-123. 



